7. Chapter 7

As I opened my eyes all I saw was white. It took me a little bit to remember what happened. Then it hit me, Chris being a vampire and not dead, and my house exploding.

“Mom! OUCH!” I cried out as I tried to sit up too suddenly, which resulted in a sharp pain in my ribs.

“Be careful Christine you have a couple broken ribs.” Chris said from the edge of my bed.

“Is my mom ok?” I knew she was getting back today and she was probably waiting at home for me.

“Christine, they aren’t sure yet. Her car was in the driveway, but they haven’t found any evidence of her being in the house when…well…you know.”

“Yeah, I know. Does anyone know why that happened?” I couldn’t understand why my house would blow up.

“They found traces of explosives in the remains of the house. Christine, I’m so sorry about this, do you have any idea who would have done that?” Chris asked as he moved his hand so that it was covering mine.

“I have no clue.” Why would anyone want to kill my mom and me? “This sucks!”

“I know, but we’ll get through this. Everything will be fine.” Chris replied calmly as he moved closer and gave me a hug. “I’ll take care of you, I promise. Nothing will happen to you.” Before I could respond the door opened and a police officer came in and Chris was standing next to my bed.

“Christine?” The policeman asked with a look of pity on his face.

“Yeah, that’s me.” This can’t be good.

“We just found evidence that your mother was inside the house when the explosion happened. I’m terribly sorry for your loss.” No, this can’t be happening. She can’t be dead.

“Oh, um…thank you for letting me know.” I replied faintly as tears started to well up.

“I’m so sorry I had to bring you this news. I’ll let you be alone with your boyfriend.” Once he had closed the door Chris moved right back to his place next to me on my bed.

“Christine I’m so sorry.” Chris said softly as the tears started to stream down my cheeks. We sat for who knows how long like that, his arms around me while I cried.

*****

The next thing I knew I wasn’t in the hospital anymore. Before I even opened my eyes I could tell that I was in a different bed. I slowly sat up and opened my eyes. I looked around and saw that I was in a fairly large bedroom. Books and CDs lined the walls and there was a huge sound system that looked really expensive. Chris was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room listening to music.

“You’re awake.” Chris said cheerfully as he turned around.

“How long have I been asleep?” I asked groggily.

“Oh about three days.” He replied amused.

“Three days! How could I be asleep for three days?” I stood up a little too quickly and Chris was suddenly by my side, holding me up.

“You have been through a lot, Christine. You had a couple broken ribs and some burns from the explosion.” While he was talking, Chris put his arm around me and we sat down on the bed.

“So it all wasn’t a dream then. Huh, I really wished it had been, well except for the part involving you still being alive.” I leaned my head on his shoulder and waited for everything to sink in again. Then I remembered something, “So my mom is really dead?”

“Yeah…”

“Where am I going to live? I don’t want to move back to Seattle, now that I found you here.” I couldn’t think of a way that I would be able to stay here though. Since I’m still a minor, I’m going to have to move back in with my dad in Seattle.

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure out some way for you to stay here. I’m not about to lose you again, Christine.”

“Thanks. I don’t want to lose you again either. So, is this your house?” I didn’t want to talk about all of that anymore and I hoped he understood the change of topic.

“Yeah, do you want the grand tour?” He asked with a knowing look; he understood perfectly.

“Yeah sure.” I replied as I stood up and headed to the door with his arm still around me.

“So, as you probably guessed, this is my room,” he said as we stopped in the doorway and turned to around to look at it before we headed into the hallway, “Next to my room is my sister, Karen’s, room. She isn’t here right now, actually no one is. They thought that they should leave and let us have some privacy. Plus, they weren’t exactly sure how many vampires you would be ok with meeting in one week.” At this comment he looked over at me with a worried expression.

“I would love to meet your family. I’m gonna have to meet them sooner or later.” I replied seriously, showing him that I wasn’t scared of his family, including him.

“Good, they’ll be back tonight anyways. I’m assuming that you’ll stay here until you find out where you’re going to live. Since you don’t know anyone else here.”

“Yeah I guess so. What will people think?”

“That you’re staying with Karen of course.”

“Oh, how silly of me.” I joked. “So shall we get back to the grand tour?”

“Alright, across from Karen’s room is my parents’ room. Now lets go downstairs.” Chris said as we approached the stairs.

“Don’t you have a brother also? What’s his name? Tim?”

“Oh yeah, he’s married to Karen so they share a room.”

“Oh…”

“So here is the living room.” Chris said once we were downstairs. “There is the dining room and kitchen, not that we use them for food. Then there is the den with the pool table.” The den was a large room that had an area for watching TV with two large couches and then an area with a pool table and some chairs along the wall for people to sit on while playing or watching. “So that’s the grand tour. I’d show you around outside, but it’s dark and your human eyes wouldn’t be able to see anything.” He said with a smirk.

“I don’t really want to go outside anyways; it’s raining.” I responded as I pointed outside. “That’s what a flashlight is for though.” I muttered under my breath, but of course he heard me with his sensitive hearing.

“Ok then,” he managed to choke out as he tried to control his laughter, “So would you like to watch a movie?”

“Well, if there is nothing else to do.” I sighed, pretending I didn’t want to.

“How about The Return of the King? That’s still one of your favorite movies right?” He asked completely ignoring my comment.

“Yes! I haven’t watched that in almost a year.” I said, immediately perking up at the chance to see some amazing action sequences (and a completely gorgeous elf). Chris led me over to one of the couches and I sat down as he got the movie started. Then he came back to the couch and sat down with his arm around me. It was surprisingly hard to concentrate on the movie sitting so close to Chris, but it didn’t really matter since I’d seen the movie like one hundred times. About halfway through the movie I noticed that we had shifted so that we were lying down on the couch with my back to him and his arm around me.

Right after the Battle of the Pelannor Fields Chris suddenly sat up, pulling me up with him. I looked at him curiously.

“My family is almost home.” He replied to my unspoken question. “I hope you’re ready to meet four more vampires.”